56 comments:

Good morning, C.C. and gang - good, not-so-easy puzzle today with a clever theme; most enjoyable.

Out of force of habit, I immediately wrote in 'at it' for 14A, which caused an early snag. Never heard of Barbara Pym or 'potsy' as another name for hopscotch.

Favorite clues were 'it's reserved for ones in a pool' and 'group with a lot of hits'. Fun puzzle.C.C., regarding 25A, 'carbine', the M4 you have pictured is a carbine, but most definitely is not considered a sniper rifle. If nobody's done it by the time I get back from the gym, I'll post a picture of a true sniper rifle. In simple terms, a sniper rifle would be long-barreled and scoped.

Today is National Noodle Ring Day. I have absolutely no idea what the hell that is.

Today's Words of Wisdom: "Some drink deeply from the river of knowledge. Others only gargle." -- Woody Allen

I had a much better time with today's puzzle than yesterday's! I just clicked with it better. Maybe because I was doing it online at 3 am since I'd had iced tea at dinner and couldn't sleep after the caffeine. No distractions, other than typos because I was typing in the dark.

Nothing easy on this one for me. Early problems were Kids for Lads, Won By A Hair instead of Nose, Lap Lane for HOV and I spelled Suede wrong. Red letter help got me through it and my major DUH moment was realizing I kept reading the Double Play clue as Phobic not Phonic. I need to go back to the river and drink this time! Once that popping sound occurred things fell into place. Favorite clue was They Can Be Offensive. I didn't understand Hov until I read CC's write up. I drive 10 minutes to work and my wife gives me shit frequently because I rarely leave the island. Nice puzzle overall.

Dealing with multiple employee issues today so its going to be a unique one.

Hi all,I also had AT IT. As well as AM NOT, which made SPAKE be meaningless. And TOTS for young ones--LADS is so male chauvinist, when the clue was sexless, I expected a unisex answer.I got the theme answers before the theme clue, not knowing anything about baseball (and not wanting/needing to, except for here). I've never heard of POTSY, or PYM either, but most of it fell in except the NW corner which I got fed up with and left blank to come here with my tots and at it leading nowhere. I've never called a LOO a JOHN, so that always gives me grief too. "Abroad" is too broad, I think, for the clue. I was trying to come up with something like Jan--John in a different language. Loo is really only general usage in GB. I also was looking for CLUES instead of CUES, and living nowhere near a freeway, HOV has no frame of reference for me either--I had to guess the O because MOB means nothing either.

Others have referred to keeping lists of things, and I don't do that, because I want to train my memory rather than just look up things to get answers, but it doesn't retain the trivia like it used to.

Good Morning All, The NW was a tough area for me. (1A)LADS could have been (and were for a while) KIDS, TOTS and TADS. Of course 14A began as AT IT. (20A)AT PAR was an unknown and even though we've probably had (27A)EMS before, I sure didn't see it coming.

Luckily, it got a little easier after I moved to the NE and worked backward and then down. All the proper names and initials, with the exception of PYM were not a problem.

I filled in (45A)"Jungle female" TIGRESS before I got the rest of 44A "They can be offensive". I had the MAN part first and thought, "Well, any man could be offensive to a jungle female" I was on the verge of putting in GOLF MAN, but Tiger Woods has had enough problems in the past week.

I've never heard of HOV LANE or POTSY. They are always Carpool Lane and Hopscotch where I come from.

Dennis, re:Noodle Ring Day. Here is your basic baked noodle ring, and then th pièce de résistance filled with creamed tuna or creamed chicken. Always a wonderful addition to the mid-west Church Supper and a pretty tasty comfort food. Maybe Jeannie has a nice Minnesota recipe.

In 1887, the novelist and poet, Robert Louis Stevenson (33A)RLS, lived in Saranac Lake, New York for about six months. Saranac Lake had a well-known tuberculosis sanitarium at the time and Stevenson who suffered from poor health for most of his life thought that perhaps "taking the cure" would help him. The following poem was written there. I hope all of you snow country people have a fireplace to enjoy on your now snowy evenings.

Winter

In rigorous hours, when down the iron laneThe redbreast looks in vainFor hips and haws,Lo, shining flowers upon my window-paneThe silver pencil of the winter draws.

When all the snowy hillAnd the bare woods are still;When snipes are silent in the frozen bogs,And all the garden garth is whelmed in mire,Lo, by the hearth, the laughter of the logs --More fair than roses, lo, the flowers of fire!

Hand up for "ON FIRE." Had no traction until the NE, then filled in that corner and backed across the puzzle. Took me a while to get off the tennis court and into volleyball for 5A. Wanted HERE for 10A, ATIT for 14A (down, Lois, that's AT IT), liked "John abroad" for the clue for 22A, originally had MOO for BAA, didn't grok the theme or 53A until reading the write up, thought there were too many winged gods to get the correct one easily, and never heard of POTSY or PYM. A nice puzzle, albeit a bit challenging.

@dennis Re: WOW And some only choke om it.

@kazie I remember seeing LOO in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, so it's a bit more widespread than just GB.

@clearayes My original fill for 45D was LIONESS, but the double L on 43A made me revise.

I agree that 1A is poorly clued. Even without the sexism, the clue and answer don't have a tight correspondence. I tried KIDS and TOTS. Also, wanted something by Zane Gray for 2D. So the NW corner was intractable, even though I didn't fall into the AT IT trap.

Tried AM TOO and AM NOT for 7D, and took forever to come up with SPIKE.

I like this theme a lot - very tight with the homophones, the literal doublings, and the double meaning key clue in the middle. Wow!

But spelling out a letter is a supremely lame fill, and the false cleverness of "Series opener?" only makes it worse. BAA!

On balance, a pretty good puzzle, though.

Other thoughts:

I might have WON BY A NOSE, if I hadn't spited my face.

Trying to write Air Music, Fire Music, and Earth Music along with Water Music was TOO MUCH TO HANDEL.

Quasimodo didn't have much food, but he always left some out FOR THE TIME BEING who haunted the clock tower.

NW was easiest for me because I read those clues while I was printing the puzzle. I had "located" "anatomy" and "steam" right away. Also had "Lenin" "Isolde" and "suedes" in NE before it finished printing. The entire bottom was harder for me. I knew "llama" after I got "alp" because I used to have a llama rug my sister gave me when she lived in Peru.

Like most others, I was not familiar with "potsy." I had heard of the British author, but I don't know when or in what context. I've not read her work. I was not familiar with "hov lane" either. Don't have them here. It was even harder because I wanted "MLB" instead of "MOB" at 29A

The theme clues were easy enough and I thought the theme would be easy with won/one and too/two, but they threw "double" in there, which confused me.

Got a half dozen answers and then it hit the recycle bin. Fridays are a no go for me again. But I do have an issue with the answer for 52d. Should be PEDIATRICIAN.

This is from www.jobprofiles.org.

An obstetrician closely monitors their patient's health during pregnancy and delivery. They diagnose fetus abnormalities or health issues of their patient and offer healthy living advice and treatment. They see their patients on a regular basis for health consultations, ultrasounds and any of their patient's prenatal medical needs including forming a birth plan. The frequency of a patients check up often depends on risk factors and resources.

A little bit of a challenge today. I did have to do some g-spotting but just a little. One of them was looking up “Caliqula” then it dawned on me they wanted the Roman numerals for 52 cards. I too have never heard of potsy for hopscotch. Favorite clue today was “group with a lot of hits” – mob. I was a huge Soprano’s fan. Anyone notice all the three letter answers today? Ess, ems, RLS, loo, VIP, ABT, Eli, obs, alp, SSW, Edy, rub, get, Pym? Seemed like a lot of them to me.

Dennis, Clearayes has the right idea on the noodle ring. I personally have never made a noodle ring, maybe a noodle sing…

I never heard of POTSY used for hopscotch either. And I agree with the comments about 1A LAD.

I’d heard of the author PYM in passing somewhere too, but was surprised that it came to me. We do have HOV lanes, and it took me forever to learn what HOV stood for when they first started showing up, so now it was a gimme. I liked LINEMEN too. And MAME is a favorite movie would also work as a homophone for ‘maim’, especially with those carbines!

Was initially thinking of tennis for 5A too, but perps directed me to SPIKE.

DrinkMaster had me thinking along the lines of something alcoholic rather than a MALT, but couldn’t think of any blended drinks with such a short name.

I tried MLB before getting MOB, but still was thinking it referred to a MOB “scene”, until I came here and got my DUH moment for “The” MOB. I don't know what we'd do without you and this blog, C.C. - but it probably wouldn't be crossword puzzles for long!

Hello All--This was a difficult puzzle for me, but Friday is usually harder than the rest of the week. I put in tots, then kids for Young ones, and so the NW corner just sat there empty for too long.

I managed to get all of the theme answers and actually understood them, but the short, easier answers eluded me today. I couldn't for the life of me think of a drink that ended with a t. I had to come back to the puzzle a couple of times before malt hit me. Duh! I'm with everyone else on the word "potsy" for hopscotch. I had never heard that name before.

Thanks to C.C. for the At Par and Gray topic so I could finish up the top portion of the puzzle.

I thought Group with a lot of hits=Mob, and John abroad=Loo were the most enjoyable clues.

Hey, Hello. TGIF and please, do feel free to observe National Noodle Ring any way you like.

Puzzle's theme was fine, but some of the of the clues seemed a little dodgy to me. Agree about LADS and OBS. I knew HOV, somehow, but its use doesn't appear to be national. Barbara PYM and POTSY were gettable (and forgettable) head scratchers but perps helped out.

Reading the blog, I'm always glad that people much more experienced at solving and with broader knowledge bases struggle a little too with some spots not just me. Confusion loves company!

Happy Chanukah. Any story about a maracle is worth telling and retelling! Good food helps. too!

Am off to rehearse something "comedic." It's newish material that's still finding its way in the world. We'll see what happens!

With all this talk about sniper weapons, how's this for weaponry trivia. Mikhail Kalashnikov, the father of the AK-47, just turned 90 years old. For his invention, he was recently awarded Russia's highest honor ~ he was made Hero of the Russian Federation as a birthday present.

kazie: I think that writing down things increases my memberatude. (See Fred). Once it's written, it impresses the mind, and eventually you can erase the written word because your rememberer part stores it. IMHO. Don't depend upon your mind to retain all things, because as you get older, as most men will tell you, things shrink.

CA; "Any cat could be offensive to a female"? NA HUA! The female always waits until males destroy each other, then mate with the winner. SELECTIVE BREEDING!!

I agree with jAZZ, that clues should not be so obscure that the fills can only be done through the perps. However, I'm a purist.

My older sister (reared in the '30's) said Hopscotch was a regular "lay out" but "Potsy" could be anything you want to design. Comments????

Can't comment too much on today's puzzle. I had a breakfast ceremonial gathering, a luncheon and our yearly golf league appreciation dinner. So I didn't spend too much time on it.

Needless to say, with my vast history in golf, I took home all the "hardware". I didn't win a trophy, but I left with all the silverware. (I may not be a good golfer, but my prestodigisthaloltosis skills took home all the sterling). (In other words, I'm a thief.) BUT, as Robin Hood, I give all I take to the poor.

I want to be like Dennis. I'm growing a beard. What a joke. I'm flicked impaired along the beard line, but my Van Dyke (which I had in college) is great - except for one thing. It's coming in a color with which I am not familiar.

I'm blond in the summer, dirty blond in the winter,(with some silver among the gold), but my beard looks like I swallowed a calico cat with it's butt exposed. It's black, brown, grey. blond and something I can't describe.

I don't want to shave it off because it think Guinness may find a way to use it.

Argyle, I gave up on them and am a little bit more "lightless" this year. My glass ornaments collected from all parts of the globe more than make up for it. As I said, "she's a beaut". It was just frustrating as I replaced the fuse twice and when I tested the strand (in different sockets) the fuse blew again. They are in the garbage and I didn't want to make the 4th appearance at the local hardware store to purchase another strand...I might get the "ditzy blonde" stigma. Besides, the cute guy wasn't working today.

Good evening C.C. and friends,Overall, an enjoyable puzzle. Annette closely touched upon points I agree with. I enjoyed the theme and the clues and had a lot of fun working from one to the next. I did find the nw to be pesky, so I worked my way around and came back to it last....loved the hov, though my first flash was country club related. I think it would be convenient to be able to use the hov! A character on "Happy Days," a 60's sit com was nick named Potsy...wonder if there is any word play there? Happy Hanukkah, friends. Also, enjoy your noodle rings (when I first read 'noodle ring', it sounded like a clue for Spagettios)...None for me, though. I'm gluten free!